Facing the Mid-American Conference's top rebounding team, the Ball State University men's basketball team packed its lunch pail and went to work on Sunday afternoon.
The Cardinals' 53-51 defeat of the University at Buffalo was aided in strong part by a 36-33 edge in rebounds. It was the team's biggest margin of victory on the boards since Jan. 31 when they grabbed three more rebounds than Ohio University.
"We showed a lot of toughness battling on the glass," coach Billy Taylor said.
Freshman forward Jarrod Jones led Ball State with nine rebounds. Four other players contributed four rebounds and everyone who played more than two minutes grabbed at least one.
"We had to go out there and play hard and physical," Jones said. "There were a lot of blows out there. I just had to play through it and attack the glass."
The Bulls came in on a nine-game winning streak, and had been outrebounded once during that stretch. Overall it was the fifth time in 23 games this season that the Bulls didn't win the battle on the boards.
"We haven't been outrebounded much this year," coach Reggie Witherspoon said. "They were aggressive getting to the glass. They were the more physical aggressive team."
The physical play is something that has been lacking at times for the Cardinals. After losing 59-41 at Miami University on Feb. 4, Taylor said he was upset by his team's lack of intensity and physicality.
It was a different story on Sunday at Worthen Arena when Ball State outscored the Bulls 28-24 in the paint and 14-10 on second chance points. Taylor said there were a couple reasons for the improvement.
"We were able to get post touches to a variety of people," Taylor said. "We were able to get driving lanes again. As Brandon [Lampley] and Rob Giles have made more shots from the perimeter, teams have to come up and put more pressure on them. It allows our guards more opportunities to finish in the paint."
Of all the plays under the basket, none were more important than Jones' rebound of Calvin Betts' attempted putback with five seconds left in the game.
"We had to get on the glass and stop them from getting an offensive rebound and tying it up," Jones said.
The rebound kept the Cardinals ahead in the game and in the MAC West standings, a place Taylor hopes they can stay.
"Hopefully we can continue to match the effort that we put out [Sunday] and continue to take the program a step forward," he said.
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